


Elemental Houses

by Lisafer



Category: Twelve Houses - Sharon Shinn
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Gen, elemental blessings, generally non-romantic, the crossover no one asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 23:47:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16881570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lisafer/pseuds/Lisafer
Summary: Some headcanon-y thoughts about what would happen if the characters from the 12 Houses had the religious blessings system of the Troubled Waters/Elemental Blessings universe.





	Elemental Houses

From the moment of her birth, Senneth’s grandmother knew she was holding a sweela girl, all fire and intelligence. Her blessings were a mixture of several elements: Serenity is a torz blessing, but Senneth found that it helped keep her sweela mind in check when situations were dire and required fast thinking. She was also blessed with Intelligence, a typical sweela trait. The final blessing she received, upon her birth, was the elay blessing of Vision. It was this that made her a favorite of King Baryn’s, because it gave her the ability to see the possible futures for Gillengaria, whenever faced with a dilemma. 

Tayse’s mother was disappointed in her marriage with a hunti man. He had dedicated himself to the king, and like any hunti man, took the vow seriously. Wood and bone to the core, hunti men made some of the best King’s Riders. When she gave birth to Tayse, she sent her husband to the temple in the royal palace where three disappointing blesses were drawn: Certainty, Steadfastness, and Power. All hunti traits, and all signs to his mother that Tayse’s life, like this father’s, would not be devoted to her. Tir would raise him to be a Rider, and dedicate all that hunti strength and resolve into another fighter at the king’s side.

When Malcolm Danalustrous met his second wife, she promised him a child. “She will be elay, a child of spirit and air.” And Kirra was just that - a breath of fresh air in a restrictive life. Malcolm honored her birth with the selection of random blessings, and chose three vassals to pull the coins. Beauty was the first blessing pulled, matching the elay description his wife had given him. The sweela blessing of Charm was selected next, and even as an infant, Kirra was able to charm the world. The last blessing, though, was the one that would define her: Change. It was a coru trait, but one that would give her the freedom to be who she was at heart, shifting into whatever shape eased her elay soul.

Justin’s mother didn’t have time for blessings. Upon his birth, she carried on in the only way she knew, doing the necessary deeds to provide food for her children. His oldest sister, though, found her way to the temple and pulled three blessings herself. Strength was drawn first, and she hoped this hunti trait would help him in whatever was in store for him. Endurance came next - one of the torz blessings. The final coin pulled was Honesty, another torz blessing that would eventually turn Justin into the kind of man who knew what he stood for, and made him quick to say it. He was a torz man, earth and flesh defining who he was and what he could do.

Donnal was coru through and through; he was born into a family of torz and sweela, and even in the womb his mother could feel his difference. His spirit was water and blood, constantly shifting and flowing. No one was surprised with his first blessing being a coru one: Swiftness. In his life, no shiftling seemed to change as quickly as he did. His second, also, was a coru trait. He was blessed with Change, and the first time he shifted shapes, he made eight more changes before becoming the little dark-haired boy who’d started. His last trait, though, was the hunti blessing of Loyalty. His family did not know what to expect of that, but understood when he willingly became a student with the serramarra, leaving his family in order to give them the security they needed. They did not know, however, that his loyalty would soon be entirely hers.

When Cammon was born, his father found a way to make money off of his blessings. It was just another scheme to find quick wealth. Bets were taken to guess what coins were pulled from the temple’s barrel. The gamblers looked at the tiny child, who peacefully watched with bright eyes, rather than squalling or sleeping like most infants. Bets were made for Serenity or Clarity, or even Spirituality. No one was surprised, though, when the Extraordinary blessings of Synthesis, Triumph and Time were pulled. Not even Cammon, when he returned to Gillengaria and learned what all the blessings meant. He could never determine what his driving element was. He identified with the feminine aspects of the elements, choosing soul over air, flesh over earth. But no particular element called to him.

Upon Princess Amalie’s birth, the king personally oversaw the drawing of blessings while Queen Pella and their daughter slept. The first coin drawn was an elay blessing: Grace. It was Baryn’s favorite blessing, and one that Pella shared. He hoped it would help Amalie when she eventually became queen of Gillengaria. The second one pulled was Clarity - a sweela trait. Finally, Baryn asked the custodian who was repainting the temple’s benches to select the last blessing: Certainty. A hunti blessing. Though he did not know his daughter would grow to be an elay woman at heart, he did feel that she’d been given three blessings that would make her a promising ruler.

The Lirrenfolk did not pull random blessings on the day of birth; it was their custom to wait until a child was old enough to pull their own blessings. So little Ellynor, a little over half a year into her life, was able to select from a bucket of oversized blessing coins. The first one she grabbed showed the torz symbol for health; perhaps she would be one of Maara’s daughters. Persistence, a coru trait, was the second one she chose. The last coin selected was the sweela token for Love. Her clan knew that this coru girl would be one to keep an eye on, lest a clan war begin due to her need for adventure. 

Jasper was always a sweela man, with inherently sweela values, as was Serephette. Upon his birth, the first blessing drawn was Intelligence, which he most identified with in his life. This was followed with the torz blessing of Contentment and a dose of coru Surprise. He spent most of his life content with his intellectual pursuits, waiting curiously for surprise. When Willawendiss came into his life, it all made sense - for she was continually surprising to him.

Wen, meanwhile, is completely torz. She is flesh and earth, solid, but pliant. Oddly, though, none of her blessings were torz. She first received hunti Determination, which was needed in her quest to become a king’s rider. She also attributed the coru blessing of Swiftness to this achievement, as she made up for her lesser strength with speed. The last blessing she never understood: she’d received the extraordinary blessing of Synthesis. It was beyond her comprehension as to how it affected her life, but Jasper always kissed her and said it made *perfect* sense to him.


End file.
